Status of Bills to Expand Social Security System

Expansion of the social security system was recommended by President Roosevelt, in his budget message to Congress, Jan. 13, 1944, as a means of dealing with many of the human problems that will confront the country after the close of the war. The present framework of unemployment insurance and retirement benefits needed to be reinforced and extended, he said, to make provision “for readjustment of the labor force and for the demobilization of the armed forces and civilian war workers.”

Pressing economic need has forced many workers to continue in employment or seek work even when disability, old age, or care of young children would have made retirement from the labor force preferable. Extension at the present time of the coverage of the federal old-age and survivors insurance system to many groups now denied protection, and expansion of the scope of the system to include disability benefits, would permit these workers to retire after the war.

I repeat my recommendation that the present unemployment insurance system be strengthened so that we shall be able to provide the necessary protection to the millions of workers who may be affected by reconversion of industry …I also recommend the adoption of a program of federal unemployment allowances for members of the armed forces.